Alfred Johansson praised the spirit of his new-look Motherwell side after a 2-1 win over Hibernian earned him a third victory out of three as manager.
Ibrahim Said finished off an 85th-minute counter-attack to secure an opening triumph in the William Hill Premiership at Easter Road.
Hibs had looked the more likely team after Martin Boyle cancelled out Lukas Fadinger’s earlier penalty with a spot-kick of his own in the 56th minute.
But goalkeeper Alex Paulsen pulled off some impressive stops and centre-back Martin Moorman cleared two efforts off the line before Said struck.
Johansson said: “I am very proud that we have a group of players that can show this commitment this early on. Some of them have been here for days. We had eight players making their debut in the Premiership for Motherwell.
“That commitment and spirit that the team shows when we have to ride out the storms and suffer a little bit as a unit, it’s evidence that we’ve brought the right characters in the door.
“Obviously you have a structure and you have principles defensively, but it’s about spirit. It’s nothing else. It’s not me, it’s not the staff, it’s the players doing that.
“It’s Martin Moorman throwing himself to block a shot. It’s Alex Paulsen to make an amazing save. It’s the front trio to defend really, really deep, and Tom Sparrow, he’s been playing everything this pre-season and everything this start of the season. He has to do it and he does it.
“That has nothing to do with us in the coaching staff. To show that spirit and that commitment, it’s massive.”
Said only scored three goals last season but his cool finish was reward for another display full of skill, bravery on the ball and ingenuity.
Johansson said of the Nigerian midifelder: “Amazing guy first and foremost, brilliant boy that has a big heart. I also watched him closely when he played in Denmark because I was in Denmark at the time.
“He’s a player that’s shown his potential many, many times. If he can show that stability in his performances, that maybe has not always been there, then that will definitely be the next step for him, and I back him to do it.”
Hibs head coach David Gray found defeat difficult to take.
“Especially when it gets back to 1-1, we had enough opportunities to win the game,” he said. “I thought we were in the ascendancy, I thought we created a lot of chances.
“There’s two things within that. One, you need to be clinical when you get to that stage and second of all, to sit here with zero points off the back of that second-half performance and the way the game went, it was really tough to take.
“The most frustrating thing for me is probably the manner of the goal we conceded. That’s real naivety, right across the board.
“People give the ball away, that happens all the time, but there was a lot of things that could be done after that to stop the game.”
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